Pants guard



March 27, 1956 Filed June 24, 1950 w. F. TUFTS 2,739,745

PANTS GUARD 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR WILLIAM F. TUFTS mm 870w". MiM

4Q ATTORNEYS March 27, 1956 w, TUFTS 2,739,745

PANTS GUARD Filed June 24, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5-5 F a a Ali:- 1 WILLIAM F. TUFTS Bywmw w ATTORNEY United States Patent PANTS GUARD William F. Tufts, Atlanta, Ga., assignor to L. M. Leathers Sons, Athens, Ga.

Application June 24, 1950, Serial No. 170,115

1 Claim. (Cl. 223-98) This invention relates to coat hangers and has an object to provide an improved trouser guard therefor. In this connection there are several secondary but important objectives which will be emphasized in the progress of this description.

Preparatory to a detailed description general reference will first be made to the various figures representing the features of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a wire coat hanger equipped with the improved trouser guard of this invention.

Figure 2 shows only the guard which is inverted so as to display the main feature of the invention.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view showing the function of the details of Figure 2.

Figure 4 shows a variation of the details of Figure 3.

Figure 5 shows the function of the details of Figure 4.

Figures 6 and 7 show separate variations of the details shown above.

Figures 8 and 9 show additional variations of the invention as shown in Figure 1.

Figures 10 and 11 show still another variation of the invention of Figure 1.

Figure 12 shows a guard equipped with an additional form of this invention.

Figure 13 is a sectional view 1919 of Figure 12.

Referring now to each figure separately a detailed description of the basic and various features of the invention will be made.

The garment hanger of Figure 1 is equipped with the trouser guard 2 of Figure 2. This guard, made from a strip of thin sheet material, is formed so as to overhang the horizontal bar of the hanger and thus protect the garment from the imprint of the wire. A paper shield of this type has been in use in the trade for many years and is generally accepted. The method by which such a shield is secured on the hanger is by provision at its ends of slots or slitted portions which engage the wire as shown at 3 in Figures 3 and 8. Such securing means is not completely effective however, and it is this ineffectiveness that this invention aims at correcting.

In Figure 2 the portions 4 of the inside of the guard ends are pre-coated in manufacture with a pressure-sensitive adhesive such as rubber latex. When installed on the wire hanger these ends when pressed together will adhere to each other by action of the adhesive as shown in Figures 1 and 3.

The fragmentary views of Figures 4 and 5 show a variation of the principle described for the preceding figures. In this case the extension 5 of the end folds around and adheres in place as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 6 shows another but slight variation. Here onehalf of the end is cut away, the end 6 folding around and adhering to the leg of the guard.

In Figure 7 is shown a clip member 8, made of metal or some suitable material, which is fastened in manufacture to the guard, so that when installed on the hanger it may be bent up to clip the two legs of the guard together. This sructure may be located at any desired position along 2,739,745 Patented Mar. 27, 19 56 the guard legs or at its ends for fastening the two legs together.

Figures 8 and 9 show still further variations of the invention. In Figure 8 the adhesive has been applied midway of the guards length to the under side of the legs. When thus installed on the hanger, pressure at this mid point will lock the two legs together. Also, as shown in Figure 9, the legs may be adhered together along the entire length of the guard as at 11.

Figures 10 and 11 show an additional variation of the invention embodying a further improvement. It is easily seen from consideration of Figures 1 thru 9 that the width requirement of the strip from which the guard of this invention is made is greatly reduced by the employment of the locking principle. If the guard were not so locked in place on the hanger, the width of the strip at the ends would have to be suiiicient to provide adequate strength at 12 and 13, of Figure 8, to insure that the paper would not break down at these points and result in the guard falling from the hanger under the weight of the garment. However, by employing the locking principle, as described above, the width of the guard can be reduced to a minimum which in some cases would be one-half that of the present standard guard. Such a reduction would represent the significant saving in paper of approximately 50%.

Such a guard is shown by 14 of Figure 10. In this figure 15 is a cover sheet of extra thin material which is applied to the guard for the purpose of appearance. This cover sheet may also be used to bear printed matter for advertising purposes. Figure 11 shows how the cover strip 15 and the guard strip 14 may be laminated in manufacture prior to forming and cutting of the finished guard. On this type of guard the locking latex adhesive may be applied to the underside of either the guard or the shield.

Reference is now made to Figures 1 and 9. In my application for patent, Serial Number 34,724, filed June 23, 1948, and which has matured into Patent No. 2,590,738, I claim as invention the application of slip-resistant means to the surface of a trouser guard for coat hangers. In Figures 1 and 10 the application 16 of slip-resistant means is shown in an improved form. Instead of a relatively wide area along the crest of the guard, the slip-resistant coating is in the form of a relatively thin serpentine line spanning a relatively wide area in order to gain full efiective width with a minimum amount of resistant material.

In Figures 12 and 13 is shown additional means for applying the locking adhesive of Figure 2. Here 17 is a blister of suitable material containing a liquid adhesive. This liquid is shown at 18 of Figure 13 which is a sectional view 1919 of Figure 12. When the blister, which is applied to the guard in manufacture, is broken, at the time of installing on the hanger, by pressing the split ends of the guard together, the liquid adhesive is thus made available for adhering the guard in place on the hanger.

The above description is not intended to include all of the means of accomplishing the aim of this invention, but rather is intended as representative of a few selected means which serve to exemplify the principles falling within the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

As an article of manufacture a trouser guard adapted to be supported by the horizontal member of a substantially triangular garment hanger, said trouser guard comprising, a substantially straight, narrow, longitudinal body of thin, flexible sheet material formed with an upper surface downwardly and outwardly diverging from a central crest to form a leg at each side of said crest, each of said legs at both ends of said sheet material having a longitudinal extension independent of one another between which the upwardly extending members of said substantially triangular garment hanger are adapted to pass, one extension at each end of said sheet material being of differing length with respect to the other extension at the same end of said sheet material, the longer extension being adapted to be folded so as to lap the end of the shorter extension, and an adhesive on one of the contacting surfaces of said extensions to secure said extensions together when the longer extension is in contacting apposition to the shorter extension.

1,662,855 Gaume Mar. 20, 1928 4 Sachs Mar. 17, 1931 Bowen Nov. 20, 1934 Guttridge Aug. 31, 1937 Kestner et a1 Dec. 20, 1949 Hoverder June 19, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Dec. 24, 1932 

